Keeping Your Instruments Clean

• Melissa Blum
• Posted 5/9/22
• 0 comments

As all of our teacher friends continue to discover new and creative ways for their students to be active music participants as part of Return To Learn, we have had many requests to update and republish our cleaning tips for elementary music rooms. In addition to the written suggestions below, we’ve also created a video with more ideas, also found below. We appreciate and support all of your efforts to create a healthy learning environment for your students

Please be aware that this information is provided as a resource for cleaning a variety of instruments typically found in an elementary general music classroom. This information is not intended to provide health care advice. Please look to your school health professional and/or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website to confirm whether a stated method will effectively prevent or kill coronavirus.

Cleaning Instructions for Various Types of Musical Instruments and Classroom Supplies:

Recorders, Nuvo instruments, and Kazoos

• ABS resin recorders, including all Harmony, the Yamaha 20 and 300 series, and the Angel 101 recorders, are dishwasher safe on the top rack, without a heated drying cycle. You may use mouthpiece cleaners on these recorders, but you should check the cleaner you are using for its disinfecting properties.
• Nuvo instruments may be fully submerged in any liquid disinfectant with hot water. Sanitizing sprays are great, but we don’t recommend bleach, as it may warp the coloring. Smaller Nuvo instruments – recorders, Toots, and Doods – are also dishwasher safe on the top rack, without a heated drying cycle. You may use mouthpiece cleaners on Nuvo instruments, but you should check the cleaner you are using for its disinfecting properties.
• West Music kazoos are dishwasher safe on the top rack, without a heated drying cycle.

Drums and percussion, movement props, mallets, and plastic ukuleles

• Remo products may be wiped with disinfecting wipes or sprayed with standard cleaners or a washcloth with soapy water. Do not soak the drum.
  • Remo Green & Clean Series products are specifically designed to withstand hospital-grade disinfectants and cleaning protocols.
• Basic Beat, Westco, and LP plastic egg shakers and Chiquita can be cleaned with disinfecting wipes but should not be submerged in a cleaning solution or put in dishwashers. They are not water-sealed and will take on liquid.
  • Note: the beads inside these products are non-toxic and safety tested, but they are metal shot, so they don’t react well with liquid, leading to messy leaks.
• Plastic and other hard surface percussion instruments (i.e., rhythm sticks, shakers, etc.) and movement props (i.e., handles on streamers, spot markers, toobaloos, etc.) may be cleaned with disinfecting wipes or sprays.
• Metal instruments like jingle bells, tambourines, steel pans, and tongue drums may be wiped with disinfecting wipes, but be mindful of extra residue. Markings and stickers may need to be touched up or may show some wear if wiped.
• Rubber mallets may be completely wiped with disinfecting wipes or spray. Yarn and felt mallets may have the shafts completely wiped, and the heads can be wiped or sprayed but may get a little fuzzy and/or may have some color transfer as a result of cleaning this way,
• Kala Waterman and Color Chord ukuleles may be wiped with disinfecting wipes.
• Fabric movement props may be washed in the washing machine (although delicate fabrics like scarves should first be placed in a protective mesh laundry bag).
• Puppets have cleaning instructions on their sewn-in tags.

Orff Instruments

• Fiberglass bars can be wiped with a cloth containing disinfectant with no material impact. Metal soundbars, bar support pins, plastic materials, and even drums with synthetic skins can be cleaned, sprayed, and immersed with no complications. We recommend cleaning, being cautious with the stamping or imprinting of bar notes or model identification. Some aggressive cleaners may loosen the imprints, so we recommend testing the respective product on an inconspicuous spot.
• Wood bars and resonator boxes may be cleaned with a cleaning spray or wipe, but you should follow up the cleaning by using linseed or lemon oil to put some moisture back into the wood. This will help offset some of the drying properties of these cleaners. Many of our teacher friends have found that placing lightweight, clear shower curtains over their wooden Orff instruments does not affect the instrument’s sound or playability! By keeping your Orff instruments covered with this lightweight vinyl, you can use disinfecting sprays and cleaners throughout the day on the top of the vinyl surface without impacting the bars or resonator boxes. Here are some other tips provided directly from SONOR:
  • Simple soap and water does a great job! A moistened cloth with soap and water is an effective way to reduce the number of harmful bacteria and viruses by simply removing the dirt and oil to which they adhere. Also, this is a natural product without aggressive chemicals that do not contribute to the environment.
  • You mix it – you control it! Many commercial disinfecting products contain serious chemicals. One way to avoid the balance of toxic ingredients is to create your own disinfectant. As recommended by the WHO or the CDC, a mixture of at least 70% Isopropyl alcohol and 30% distilled water should be used. (The % are the proportions of your mixture).  The disinfectant should be sprayed onto a cloth to dampen it. Also, the alcohol evaporates quickly, so disinfect in a ventilated space to avoid fumes.
  • Always damp, not soaking wet! Since many Orff instruments are made of wood, moisture is naturally harmful to these materials. SONOR Orff instruments are sealed with a protective varnish coating to be wiped down with soapy water or a cloth soaked in an alcohol solution. The coating does not withstand extensive or aggressive cleaning. Caution is advised with the use of fogging spray cleaners. This can cause moisture to settle on the wood and be absorbed. The use of cloths is always the better option when it comes to cleaning wood surfaces.
• All other materials used in Orff instruments apart from wood are mostly impervious to commercial disinfectants. For institutions that do not allow you to clean exclusively with soap and water or an alcohol disinfectant, instruments that use fiberglass or metal chime bars with plastic resonators or Glockenspiels with plastic frames can be an excellent choice.

Wood guitars, ukuleles, and other wood instruments

• Wood ukuleles spray 70% Isopropyl alcohol onto a microfiber cloth, where the cloth is damp but not dripping. Start at the ukulele’s top, wipe around the headstock and all parts of the tuning pegs. Run the cloth over the back of the neck and then down the uke’s back and side. Fold the cloth to a new section, remoisten if needed, and clean the fret wire of any dirt and accumulated dead skin. Fold cloth once more to clean the side and wipe down the top of the bottom and bottom. The uke is disinfected and ready for the next play.  It’s also important to add back moisture into the wood with some mineral oil now and then. 70% isopropyl alcohol tends to evaporate quickly. Also, diluted vinegar or a bleach solution will kill bacteria and viruses quite well too.
• Other wood products and surfaces can withstand an occasional wipe down or spray but are not designed to withstand extensive ongoing chemical cleaning. The wood is not sealed; it may absorb liquid and may swell. Finished surfaces that don’t have a thick coat of polyurethane may become discolored.
• Outlined above are general guidelines for wood instrument care and may not answer the question you have regarding your specific instrument. We advise you to research the specific cleaners you are using and see what advice is given about using them on fine wood furniture.

Yamaha Piano Keys

Guidelines for cleaning your keys and preventing damage! Yamaha acoustic and digital piano key tops are made of synthetic materials which may react adversely to various cleaning and disinfecting agents. We advise the following practices for cleaning and protecting your keys:

• Avoid cleaners (both liquid and saturated wipe-type cleaners) that contain harsh ingredients, including alcohol (isopropyl), chlorine, ethanol, benzene, peroxide, and salts. These ingredients contribute to discoloration and cracking.
• If a player uses hand sanitizer that contains any of the above ingredients, please make sure their hands are completely dry before touching the keyboard.
• Using a microfiber cloth dampened with lukewarm water, with a small amount of dish soap, and wrung out enough, so water does not drip on the keys. Wipe down the keys in a ‘toward the player’ motion.
  • Using a second microfiber cloth dampened with lukewarm water, wrung out enough that water does not drip on the keys, wipe down the keys again in a ‘toward the player’ motion.
  • Finally, using a third, dried microfiber cloth, wipe down the keys in a ‘toward the player’ motion until all the keys are dry.
• Keep the key cover closed at all times when the piano is not in use.
• Cleaning your hands before playing is recommended and will ensure a high level of playability throughout the life of your piano.

Brass and woodwind band instruments

• Mouthpieces should be cleaned inside and out with alcohol wipes, swabs, or disinfectant solution. Use cleaning rods, swabs, mouthpiece brushes, or other recommended cleaning supplies to prevent residue buildup within the instrument.
• Sterisol Germicide Solution can be safely used on plastics, hard rubbers, and metals. You may also use a solution made with 50% water and 50% white vinegar or 50% water and 50% hydrogen peroxide.
• Mi-T-Mist Mouthpiece Cleanser and isopropyl alcohol wipes are safe for most materials.
• For more advice on cleaning and disinfecting school band instruments, we recommend this article written by NFHS, NAfME, and the NAMM Foundation: Covid 19 Instrument Cleaning Guidelines
• Learn more on West Music’s Band and Orchestra Instrument Cleaning & Sanitization Tips blog.

Looking for some easy-to-clean options or PPE products for your classroom?

Shop West Music’s Easy to Clean product category. You’ll find a variety of instruments that not only sound great but are easy to keep clean for ongoing use. All of the featured products can be cleaned with disinfecting wipes or sprays, and many are dishwasher safe or can be cleaned with hot, soapy water.

Check out West Music’s  Play It Safe product category for helpful products and personal protective equipment specifically for musicians. Help your students minimize the risk of infection by using these products specifically designed to reduce aspiration while playing wind instruments and keeping instruments sanitized between use. For best results, follow instructions on cleaning products exactly.

We will continue to update this post as we learn more information about how best to care for your products. If you have additional questions or concerns regarding cleaning your instrument, you may always write to service@westmusic.com. We wish you and your classrooms continued health!